Titus & Filby Chapter One
by Arthur Kay
Summary: In a universe where man lives indefinitely and explores the stars, Titus is about to lead a group of colonists to a new 'earth like' planet with a breathable atmosphere. But Titus' long life may be coming to an end.


**INT: 'New Earth Observation Tower', observation room – In orbit around the 'new earth'**

As I look down upon the unexplored surface of this new world – a potential 'second home' for humanity, my mind races with questions, possibility and probabilities, but underneath it all is the hum of more personal introspection. How did I live so long?

Before long my reflections are interrupted by Rec. Filby who is babbling about early positioning charts for the neighbouring unexplored galaxies. His reaction to the discovery of the 'new Earth' was one of total indifference. Ever the explorer Filby, my oldest friend and colleague, has known no other life. He has been at the frontier of space exploration for nearly six-hundred years, and at this stage it is only safe to assume he will continue moving until the day Death reappears. All this new world is to him is a slightly larger-than-usual colony. I lazily interrupt him.

"Given our distance from Earth, and the average age of the oldest colony members within travelling distance of this planet, there are a billion or more people out there who will potentially be inside a breathable atmosphere for the first time in their lives, very soon."

"Well I'm very pleased for them," Filby replied, "But I have been within a breathable atmosphere, and if my childhood memories serve me correct it was mostly wet and cold."

"This is seen by almost everybody, yourself excluded, to be the most important find in the history of interstellar exploration," I stated, dispassionately.

"So I'm told. I suppose it depends on what you're out here looking for. They are looking for a new home, I am looking for answers." He buries his head in his printouts, and I have time to look over the personnel files I had been sent in order to begin choosing my five-man exploration team.

The mood in the room was sombre; Filby and I had reached a parting of ways. Once the observation tower was fully operational he would be put in charge of interstellar exploration, a position which lasted only until a destination was found for the next tower. He would be here for fifty years at most, hardly any time at all. Shortly after that, renegade squatters would take the tower for their own.

I, on the other hand will be placed in charge of colonists on the surface, a position which is far more indefinite. My ethics, reasoning and proven diplomatic skills have convinced the Parliament of Earth to elect me this planet's first president. What the Parliament doesn't know, what Filby doesn't know and what I can't possibly know, is that I will soon be dead.

"Filby, are you going to visit me once in a while when you cruise past?"

"If I ever land on that planet it had better be in a coffin."

**INT: Meili Observation Tower, living quarters – In orbit**

The planet we are currently orbiting has at last been named. No longer is it 'new earth' or 'earth-like planet' - it is called, Meili. We are told by the Parliament that according to the available mythological material from the time of early interstellar travel, Meili was the son of Jörð, a Norse Goddess who personified the Earth. I dislike the implication that this planet, Meili, is in anyway a child of the Earth, but it is a necessary call back to the time of change.

It is only one month now until I depart for the surface. I have only chosen one candidate of the five required; a young explorer by the name of Eva, whose is serving her 246th year as a Suit, a job I could hardly imagine doing. The Suit's are the ones who explore where our technology can't get. They do so in incredibly hostile atmospheres, on very dangerous terrains, with little in the way of protection for their bodies. It's hard to conceive of how they're able to share in us 'insiders'' long life spans.

Filby is working on an analysis of Meili's two largest moons. Meili-1 would play host to an enormous residential colony. Not everybody in this sector of space wanted to become 'outsiders', and new homes must be built, regardless of the outcome of our expedition. Meili-2, the smaller moon, could be used as a kind of immigration portal. Only certain people would be selected for the colony on Meili, so security on immigration would have to be tight. Plenty of renegades to ferry people over the boarder.

"When are they going to announce the name of the star, Filby?"

"They already have, you were too busy scribbling in that pad." I turned up the monitor hoping to see the announcement repeated.

"It's unfortunately sentimental. Would you like to know?" Filby asked, as I watched the news-reader describe a football game played millions of light years away on some asteroid. "It's called Vaka. Supposedly after the daughter of August Haesmith [discoverer of this solar system]. That little girl has been crudely hammered into our shared history. Still I mustn't get too upset. This system is one of many, mark my words. And if we've found something once, it'll be much easier to do it again."

He's right of course. Now would probably be a goo...

… _Good evening Titus, it is I, the mighty Filby, mighty pissed off! There is much work to do, yet I am sat in a medi-deck waiting area hoping you are not dead. I shall forgive you this once – you have never done it before, and I trust you won't do it again, for if you do, I shall END YOU MYSELF! _

_PS.. I do really hope you aren't dead._

**INT: Meili Observation Tower, medical deck – In orbit**

I chuckle lightly when I see the note from Filby above. Apparently I just keeled over on the desk. It isn't unheard of that something like this should happen, after all, we still get sick and have accidents just as we did hundreds of years ago. The problem this time is that the medical Recs are unable to find anything wrong with me. I knew they wouldn't. There isn't anything wrong with me, I'm just running out of 'narrative'. It isn't a coincidence that at the same time I become convinced my life is nearing its end, I choose to accept a fixed position on Meili.

I never thought the excitement of exploring new worlds would end, but after almost six-hundred years of continuous discovery, I am no longer sure this journey is taking us anywhere. Perhaps the only reason we humans feel a sense of direction is because we were at one time all heading for death as I am now.

The medi's tell me Filby left the second he heard I was OK, and in quite the hurry. Every move he makes at the moment suggests he cannot wait to be away from the planet. He was kind enough to return with the paperwork on the possible candidates for the Meili expedition. Aside from Eva, I have chosen an experienced Martian named Kl'onz – the first identified member of the first human subspecies. My latest choice was the simplest of all, but will be extremely controversial.

"Not a fucking chance," Filby will say in a few hours when I tell him. My third pick, none other than Peter Filby Jr.

Medi's say I am to be discharged tomorrow. I am in good health, in spite of Filby's rather vicious attempt to throttle me when I told him the news.

"Titus, I love the boy, but he's simple, and if you ask him to do this he will not understand the full implications!" an exacerbated Filby exclaimed, arms flailing in the air.

"You speak as if I've signed Peter up as a colonist. Once the expedition is over he is free to go back to his training, or where ever else he chooses to go."

"And what if he chooses to stay on Meili!"

"Then that is his choice, and you cannot deny him that."

Filby was pacing back and forth, stubbornly refusing to stop overreacting. "What did I do to you this time Titus, hmm? Why steer my son from the road I worked so hard to get him on?"

"Filby, you are my oldest friend. I am Peter's secondary guardian. You and I both want what's best for him. I simply admire his strength, I trust him with my life and I think it'll be an invaluable experience for him." Filby paused to think, no doubt about whether or not he was being paranoid regarding my motives.

"I'll let you have him on one condition. He is not to stay on that planet as a colonist, under any circumstances!"

"You know, Filby, that cannot be enforced."

"Fine, take the retarded little cunt. But I warn you, the first opportunity I have to ship your daughter to a station far away, where you may never see her again, I will take it." And at that, he stormed from the medical deck, unsurprisingly without wishing me good health.

**INT: Meili Observation Tower, Parliamentary representative's office – In orbit**

The office of the Parliamentary rep. is surprisingly small. It has only a desk, a computer hub and a single chair for visitors. The office was designed for temporary occupants, but the stark nature of the interior gives me the impression Filby isn't the only person who cannot wait to get away. The only thing remarkable about the office was the view it offered of Meili from its panoramic window.

"Good to see you Titus, please sit down." He is welcoming and warm, and uncharacteristically likeable for a politician. "I understand you have not yet chosen your team for this expedition. How is your progress?"

"I have three candidates so far, sir, a Suit named Eva, a Martian named Kl'onz and a PoliceGuard named Peter Filby Jr. I would have made more progress with selecting the other two, but I was taken ill."

"Yes I heard. So you are in need of only two more candidates?"

"That is correct, sir."

"Well then, this has worked out nicely. I didn't ask you here today just for a progress report. There's some people I'd like you to meet."

He summoned in three men who I had seen waiting outside. All three were tall, handsome looking men, one much older than the other two - quite clearly their father.

"Rec. Titus, this is Lord Toba and his sons, Ghris and Sang. Now as you know, the selection program for the first colonists of Meili has already begun. Lord Toba is the man in charge of that process. Ghris and Sang were the first men to enter the program, and have unsurprisingly proved to be perfect Meili material. And so Titus; Lord Toba and myself have agreed that Ghris and Sang should be a part of your expedition. You no longer have the responsibility of choosing, you can begin your final preparations."

This was the first time I had met Ghris and Sang, and as such had no knowledge of their suitability for the expedition. At this point, I had no other objection. Even so, I wanted to be clear about what was being said. "Do I have any choice in this?" I asked, in as kindly a way as I could.

"If you knew my sons Rec. Titus, our choice would be your choice also," Lord Toba said, apparently offended by my questioning.

"There is no heavy hand in all this, but I must insist you take them with you Titus. They're quite capable," Rep. Tomaz said.

"I see. Well I suppose I ought to start getting to know them."

**INT: Meili Observation Tower, observation deck – In orbit**

It can all seem so meaningless. It can still all seem so meaningless. I can't help but feel that all we've found is what we had in the first place.

Just pre-launch nerves, it's the big day tomorrow. The team is working at a satisfactory level. Ghris and Sang are two of the most unpleasant boys I have ever known, but Eva is good company. Kl'onz is very quiet, but I am told to expect that of Martians.

"So tomorrow, you re-enter the atmosphere, so to speak. Nervous?" Filby had begun conducting his pre-launch interview.

"What do I have to be nervous about, it's a hospitable planet."

"Mm yes true, but that isn't what I meant. I've been trying to assess your current frame of mind. A few decades ago you never would have agreed to anchor down on any planet, liveable or not. I have two possible conclusions, if you'll indulge me." He didn't give me time to interrupt. "One: You are hoping to find something on Meili – something different from anything else, something that gets you out of the stagnant existential crisis you have found yourself in."

He paused, as if to allow my mind to blow. "Or?"

"Two: That thing you're looking for is an end to that crisis, as opposed to an exit. I put it to you, that the thing you are looking for on Meili is death itself."

I laughed. We both laughed. He was right.

**INT: Meili Observation Tower, living quarters – In orbit**

This is it. I am about to head to the launching platform. Fil...

… _This is getting silly now Titus. I think this 21st century style pad has something toxic in its make-up. Will await your inevitable return to health in the labs. _

_PS.. Rep. Tomaz is really mad._


End file.
